Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Equities closed lower on Tuesday after trading volatile as benchmark KSE-100 Index traded in a wide range of near 800 points.

“Market opened on a negative note as the index lost to make an intraday low of -623 points during the initial hours of the trade on the back of aggressive selling by investors. The selling was led by fear of strict action by Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on compliance issues. Some recovery was later witnessed in the market as the index gained to make an intraday high of +171 points”, said Nabeel Haroon, an analyst at JS research.

However, the recovery was short lived as the market again lost ground to close 215 points lower at 48,758 level. “Wider market carried Monday’s negative trend and opened gap down while lower regional markets also had an impact on sentiments in early trade that resulted in KSE-100 Index testing support over 48,300 level. Although the market quickly recovered thereafter to enter in green zone however general negativity and reported institutional selling in index names across Cements, Pharmas, Financials, Exploration & Productions (E&Ps) and select kept KSE100 Index in pressure”, said Faisal Bilwani of Elixir Research.

Investors generally preferred safe heavens/yield plays in a bid to brace up their portfolios for withstanding volatility in the near-term. Notably, Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC) with +1.9% maintained its winning streak into a second day as government scaled back on its earlier decision of 5% stake divestment, followed by Hub Power that gained by 1.3% contributing as second most gains to KSE100 Index after churning over 5 million shares, being the most in last three weeks; while declines were led by Lucky Cements, Searle Habib Bank, MCB Bank and Mari Petroleum with all closing lower on reported institutional selling.

“Expect volatility to prevail in near-term with KSE100 Index hovering in a range of 300-600 points near 49000. Flows in index names will continue to provide direction to the market while ongoing results season will keep investors interest intact”, added Bilwani.